Star Trek: Mirror Universe Story
In the Mirror Universe, an amoral, imperialistic version of the Enterprise crew is led by Captain Maximillian Forrest and his treacherous first officer, Commander Jonathan Archer. Archer has proposed that the ship head into Tholian space, where a mysterious vessel has been captured. Archer believes the ship may contain the technology that would be valuable to the Terran Empire. Forrest, however, thinks Archer is merely trying to seize power, and dismisses the idea. A determined Archer has another plan up his sleeve, however — with help from Major Malcolm Reed and Sergeant Travis Mayweather, he stages a mutiny, taking control of the ship and imprisoning Forrest in the brig. Archer promotes Commander T'Pol to first officer, appoints Mayweather as his personal guard, and takes up with Forrest's lover, Hoshi Sato. As the I.S.S. Enterprise approaches Tholian space, the crew captures a Tholian pilot. Phlox takes great pleasure in torturing the creature, who finally gives Archer the information he wants: the exact location of the mysterious vessel. In Engineering, Trip and T'Pol work to install a Suliban cloaking device on Enterprise. Something goes wrong, however, and a power overload damages the cloak. Archer realizes it was sabotage, and Reed determines that the saboteur was Trip. Reed tortures Trip using the sadistic agony booth, but the engineer offers no further information. Later, Archer has another realization: the target of the sabotage wasn't the cloak — it was the ship's internal sensors. In fact, the actual culprit was T'Pol, who mind-melded with Trip and tricked him into performing the sabotage. T'Pol frees Forrest from the brig and the duo takes control of the bridge. Archer, however, has a surprise for them: he's encrypted the ship's controls, and they won't be released until Enterprise has reached its destination in Tholian space. Forrest is furious, but there's not much he can do — especially when he is ordered to investigate the captured ship. Archer briefs the senior staff on the ship: it is believed that the vessel came from a parallel universe via an interphasic rift. What's more, the ship isn't just from another reality — it's also from another time, about 100 years in the future. Once Trip gets the cloaking device working, Enterprise heads for the coordinates of the future ship. The ship, which bears the name and registry U.S.S. Defiant, NCC-1764, is being kept inside a Tholian spacedock facility. Forrest sends an assault team, led by Archer, onboard. He tells T'Pol to accompany the team — and to make sure Archer doesn't come back alive. The team boards the ship, which is littered with dead human bodies. Still, they manage to bring the Defiant's systems online. Onboard Enterprise, the Tholian prisoner wakes up and starts making a racket . Phlox kills it, but Enterprise's problems aren't over: several Tholian ships are approaching. Using continuous streams of energy, the Tholian vessels form a complex web that completely surrounds Enterprise. As the web closes in on the ship, Forrest tries to fight back, but to no avail. Desperate, he orders everyone to abandon ship. From the bridge of the Defiant, Archer and his team watch in shock as Enterprise explodes with Forrest onboard. Moment after watching Enterprise's fiery explosion, Archer and his team are attempting to escape on the Defiant. The Tholian ships try to trap them with their deadly web, but Archer and crew manage to get the Defiant's systems working and use the ship to fight their way out. They also bring the escape pods from Enterprise onboard. Archer and Hoshi peruse the ship's computer for information on their parallel universe counterparts. Archer is shocked to find no mention of the Empire — only something called "The United Federation of Planets." He's also disturbed to learn that his alternate universe counterpart is a starship captain and revered explorer. The crew eventually discovers that they are not alone on the Defiant — a strange, reptilian creature known as a Gorn is hiding onboard, and he seems intent on sabotaging the ship. Archer goes after the Gorn and the two engage in an intense physical scuffle. Archer manages to get the upper hand by changing the gravity in that particular section of the ship and shoots the alien. Later, the Defiant saves an imperial starship, the Avenger, from a rebel attack. Admiral Logan Black, who is in command of the Avenger, is shocked to see Archer at the helm of this futuristic, alternate Earth vessel. Black tells Archer he will recommend him for a command as soon as possible, but Archer is impatient. Tormented by mocking visions of his more accomplished parallel universe counterpart, Archer becomes enraged. He's determined not to let Black take the Defiant from him. His megalomania and paranoia building, Archer shoots and kills Black. He then brings the Avenger's crew under his command and tells them that he plans to seize control of the Empire. At least one person isn't sure of this plan, however . T'Pol believes that Archer will use the Defiant's advanced weapons to completely wipe out the rebellion, including thousands of Vulcans. She approaches Avenger crewmember Soval with a plan of her own — she wants to steal the data on Defiant's engines and tactical systems, give it to the rebels and destroy the ship. The duo manages to recruit Phlox and other non-Terrans to their cause. T'Pol is found out and taken prisoner, but Soval manages to get control of the Avenger while Phlox sabotages the Defiant. It's all for naught, however — Phlox is taken down before he can complete his sabotage and the Defiant destroys the Avenger. Later, onboard the Defiant, Archer and Hoshi celebrate. Archer plans to erase the ship's historical database, to prevent information getting out on the alternate universe. As Archer toasts his imminent reign as Emperor, he suddenly finds himself gasping for breath. He realizes that Hoshi has poisoned him. As Archer takes his final breaths, Hoshi reveals her co-conspirator: Mayweather. The two kiss passionately while Archer dies. Now in command of the Defiant, Hoshi orders all to surrender to Empress Sato — the new ruler of the Terran Empire. After failing to persuade the Halkan Council to allow the Federation to mine dilithium crystals on their planet, Captain James T. Kirk, along with Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and Lt. Uhura, return to the Enterprise. An unexpected ion storm causes a transporter malfunction, and the landing team beams aboard an unfamiliar Enterprise. The group realizes something is amiss as they arrive on the transporter pad: a goateed Mr. Spock viciously tortures the transporter operator, Lt. Kyle, for carelessness in nearly losing the ship's captain. (Low ranking crew members carry "agonizers", which superior officers use to punish them for dereliction of duty.) Kirk deduces that they must have switched places with their mirror-universe counterparts, and the landing party from this universe must now be aboard his Enterprise, and that his landing party must impersonate their counterparts until they can find a way home. In this alternate universe, the USS Enterprise is called an "Imperial Starship" or ISS Enterprise, and a brutal Terran Empire has replaced the Federation. Officers rise in rank by assassinating their superiors (as Kirk discovers when Chekhov nearly succeeds in assassinating him), and as a result all high ranking officers must hire a personal bodyguard. Uniforms in this alternate universe are very different; sidearms and daggers are standard issue, while the clothing itself is much more revealing. Torturing subordinates is an acceptable form of discipline in this alternate universe. On board on the USS Enterprise Mr. Spock notices the changed personalities of the landing party and orders security to take them to a holding cell. The mirror Kirk tries to bribe Spock with rewards of "a command of (his) own" if he's freed but Spock simply replies "fascinating" and continues investigating. Spock comes to the same conclusion as Kirk: the ion storm must have opened a barrier between parallel universes and the two landing parties have switched places. Back on the ISS Enterprise, Kirk goes to the captain's quarters on this ship, which are quite different from his own. He discovers that the mirror-Kirk has been ordered to annihilate the Halkans if they refuse the Empire's "request" to mine dilithium, and horrified, Kirk studies his counterpart's records further, In this universe, "Kirk" gained command of the ISS Enterprise by assassinating Captain Christopher Pike and was responsible for massacring 5,000 colonists on Vega IX, among many other atrocities. Mirror-Spock informs Kirk that the ship is ready to attack the Halkans. Desperately, Kirk orders a delay in the attack for 12 hours. This piques mirror-Spock's curiosity, but he obeys the order; he does report the suspicious activity of his Captain to the Imperial Command, and receives orders to kill Captain Kirk if he does not carry out the order to destroy the uncooperative Halkans. Having failed to sabotage the weapons systems, Scotty and McCoy work secretly to figure out what happened with the transporter. While Scotty is finding a way to return them to the correct universe, Kirk goes to his quarters and meets the beautiful Lieutenant Marlena Moreau, who refers to herself as the "Captain's Woman". It appears that female crew members may attach themselves by agreement to particular men - Marlena is evidently tiring of her Kirk. Marlena shows Kirk the Tantalus Field, a device in the captain's quarters which can secretly monitor anyone on the ship and "eliminate" them. When he prevents her from eliminating the mirror-Spock, she realizes something is wrong--her Kirk would not have hesitated. Kirk stalls the mirror-Spock while his crew search for a way home, but Spock is suspicious. Spock, not wanting command of the ISS Enterprise as it would make him an instant target of assassination, decides instead to study the Captain as long as he can. Scotty has, with the aid of McCoy, rigged up the necessary connections to make a return switch. Mirror-Sulu, the security chief, is distracted from his monitors at the vital moment of connection by Uhura seeming to encourage his previously-rejected amorous advances. The party reaches the transporter room, but the mirror-Spock confronts them and leads them to sick bay. In the ensuing fight, Kirk knocks the Vulcan and the mirror-Sulu unconscious. (Marlena has "eliminated" Sulu's thugs with the Tantalus Field.) Uhura, Kirk, and Scotty head for the transporter room again while McCoy stays behind to make sure that mirror-Spock is all right. In the transporter room they meet Marlena, who now knows the facts and asks them to take her with them. Kirk refuses on the grounds that the energy is set for four people. Marlena persists and is disarmed by Uhura. Mirror-Spock suddenly comes to and quickly mind melds with McCoy in order to read his mind. He discovers the switch, and offers to operate the transporter so that the entire landing party may return to their own universe. This convinces Kirk that this universe's Mr. Spock is still an ethical Vulcan guided by logic. He suggests to mirror-Spock that a Federation-like system is more logical than the ruthless barbarian Empire. Spock objects that one must have the power, and Kirk informs him of the Tantalus Field. Mirror-Spock agrees to consider the idea. (Marlena is presumably now on his side.) On board the USS Enterprise, Spock decides to attempt the beaming sequence at the same time the ISS Enterprise attempts theirs. The switch is successful. As the episode ends, Kirk meets his own universe's Lieutenant Marlena Moreau, who is quite a different girl from what he experienced her to be in the other universe. Kirk tells Spock that Moreau "seems like a nice, likable girl" and that he thinks they "could be friends". The real Spock also comments that the ruthless attitude of the Mirror Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura were refreshing, and "the very flower of humanity". After the events in "Mirror, Mirror", mirror Spock tries to follow the vision of the Federation he saw in our universe's Dr. McCoy by asking mirror James T. Kirk not to exterminate the Halkans. He realizes he has no hope of reforming Kirk and later strangles him to death in his quarters while Marlena Moreau watches. Marlena demonstrates how to use the Tantalus field to Spock on Kirk's body. Later, Spock listens to his human desires and keeps Marlena as the captain's woman, and then performs a mind meld on her. He begins plotting a revolution to destroy the Terran Empire and raise a new galactic order. Before the conference at Babel, Spock welcomes Sarek, whom he has not talked to in eighteen years, and the Vulcan delegates aboard the Enterprise and gives them a tour. He has a private conversation with Sarek in which Spock reveals his plan. He knows the Empire's fall is inevitable, but wants to preserve knowledge and to save its people by giving them freedom first. Spock will seize the throne and replace the Empire with a republic. He also reveals that Marlena is now his fiancée. Spock starts off his grand scheme by negotiating a treaty between the rival Elasians and Troyians. The Empire had seen huge deposits of dilithium crystals on both planets, but the planets were too well armed to be conquered, so they provoked a war to weaken the two races to conquer them when they had weakened each other. Spock convinces the Dohlman of Elas to wed the Caliph of Troyius and unite the two worlds to build up their economic power against the Empire. Elaan also grants Spock, not the Empire, exclusive mining rights of dilithium on her planet, guaranteeing Spock an admiral's position in Starfleet. Meanwhile, Montgomery Scott, Leonard McCoy and Nyota Uhura are discussing Spock's strange behavior ever since the Halkan mission. A while earlier, the Enterprise ran into a Klingon cruiser, but when a Starfleet boarding party beamed aboard, there were no Klingons aboard and it looked like they had just disappeared. The three of them suspect that Spock has Vulcan psionic powers, and Uhura resolves to kill him, but she is suddenly vaporized by the Tantalus field. Rumors continue to spread throughout the ship and the fleet, exactly as Spock plans. When word reaches Empress Hoshi Sato III, she decides to make Spock an admiral to gain his loyalty. Admiral Spock orders his first officer of the ISS Enterprise, Commander Willard Decker, to join him, Ensign Saavik, Lieutenants Xon, Solok and Stang at a Starfleet Admiralty conference on Deneva. The landing party goes to the security room, where Stang reports that there are no other admirals at the conference. Spock tells a dumbfounded Decker that he knows this is a trap. When the Vulcans are not looking, Decker tries to fire his phaser at Spock, but is stopped by the phaser-dampening field in the room. Saavik and Xon stab him and slit his throat. Grand Admiral Matthew Decker, Will's father, is furious when he hears the news that his son failed in their assassination attempt and is now dead. His first officer, Commander Hiromi Takeshewada, also informs him that he must contact the Empress as soon as possible. Sato orders him to kill Spock because they know he will seize control of Starfleet soon, and because of his popularity within Starfleet. He sends a message to the rest of the fleet loyal to the Empress telling them to assemble at the Terra Nova system and destroy the Enterprise. The Enterprise intercepts the encrypted message from Decker and moves to Terra Nova to "surrender". The ship arrives with shields and weapons powered down, and Spock offers to beam to Decker's ship, the ISS Constellation, to formally surrender. Once he arrives on the Constellation's bridge, the crew mutinies against Decker. Takeshewada, whom Spock had recruited for his cause years ago, relieves and kills Decker. Crews on all other ships throughout Starfleet have also mutinied, and Spock now has control of 61.3% of the ships, while the rest are captained by neutral officers. The Empress watches as Spock assumes the rank of grand admiral, and orders him to go to her palace next week so she can congratulate him. Right before the reception at the palace, Spock orders Saavik to his quarters. He asks for her thoughts about what he is about to do and decides she is worthy. He shows her how to use the Tantalus field and leaves the fate of the revolution in her hands. She has five minutes to decide whether to let the Imperial guards kill Spock and try to gain power for herself later, assassinate Spock with the field and gain favor with the Empress, or help him towards the future of the Federation he shows her in a mind meld. At the palace, Spock swears loyalty to the Empire, but refuses to swear loyalty to the Empress herself, which she uses as an excuse to kill him. Before her guards can shoot, the Empress and the entire company of the Imperial Guard are vaporized by the field. Spock seats himself upon the former Empress' throne, and after a few moments the crowd declares him their Emperor. Two months later, Spock has another conference with Sarek. They plan to increase the power of the Empire's governors and create a Common Forum and Senate. The Empire will begin offering planets the chance to join the Empire voluntarily instead of conquering them. After that, Spock wants to grant all sentient beings inalienable rights and eventually abolish the Empire. Spock delivers the proclamation of inalienable rights, much to the joy of the people, but to the horror of the politicians. Spock and Sarek discuss his plans again, and now Sarek learns that Spock intends for the future republic to fall. While the Empire is in an uproar over the declaration of rights, Spock moves forward with his plan. He travels to Regula I aboard the Enterprise to meet with Carol Marcus about her proposal for more funds for Project Genesis. Right before the beam down, he and Saavik talk in the turbolift, where she also comes to the conclusion that Spock wants the future republic to fall, because he believes it will lead to the inevitable fall of the Klingon Empire. Spock denies Marcus' request for more funding, but drafts her into a top secret project. She is to terraform other caves similar to the Genesis cave in Phase II of the project for the future of their civilization. The revolution is spreading throughout Vulcan. Vulcans randomly brush each other and pass on the vision of the Federation from the regular universe Doctor McCoy which Spock passed to Sarek, who passed it on to other Vulcans. One Vulcan about to spread the idea to another discovers a Romulan spy when she touches him, and then kills him. Regent Sturka of the Klingon Empire gathers the High Council in the Great Hall. Councillor Gorkon grows weary of all the bickering, and Sturka's inability to control it, so he kills him. He wants to increase production on their moon, Praxis, and attack Earth while it is weak because Spock has decreased military spending and arms development. On Romulus, Praetor Vrax and the Senate are plotting their own strike on the Terran Empire. The Romulans know that a peace movement is spreading on Vulcan, but do not understand how. Senator Pardek, who has spies on Vulcan, voices his belief that the Vulcans are spreading the idea telepathically, which the Senators think is hilarious. He decides to vote to increase infiltration of the Terran Empire to try to understand why Spock is setting his Empire up to fall on purpose. Starfleet Admirals Lance Cartwright, Robert Bennett, Thomas Morrow and Salliserra zh'Ferro, Colonel Ivan West, General Quiniven, and the head of Starfleet Intelligence Commodore Vosrok meet and make a plan to stop Spock before he dismantles the Empire. After they kill Spock, Marlena, the Senate and the Forum, they want to reinstate the military dictatorship. They plan to take them all out in one blow by detonating a few kilograms of ultritium disguised as guard armor during a joint session of the Legislature. The admirals even have someone in the Imperial Guard who will do it. Klingon General Kang is speaking at a conference between the Klingons and Terrans when the Terran ambassador, Curzon Dax arrives and rudely addresses him. The two empires had been fighting for control of the planet Korvat, but Curzon tells the Klingons that the Terrans no longer want to fight for the planet because the Klingons are so weak, the Terrans might as well just let them have it. General Chang informs Regent Gorkon that their bird-of-prey prototypes that can fire while cloaked are almost ready. Marlena has a nightmare about losing her baby, and demands an answer from Spock when she wakes up about why he refuses to have any children with her. Spock says that any of their children would die violently because the time for the Republic's fall is nearing. And even if a child were to grow up in secret, their invaders would search throughout the Terran territory to find him, and they might uncover Spock's secret for the future. Spock and his guard, including Vosrok's assassin, travel to Khitomer to meet with the other powers in the quadrant about what to do now that Praxis has exploded. The assassin, Valeris, is assigned to be Spock's personal bodyguard during the conference. Spock offers a truce with the Klingons because their Empire cannot last much longer now, but Gorkon takes offense and refuses. The Klingon party quickly leaves Khitomer. Senator Pardek requests an audience with Spock, where he asks the Emperor why he will not form an alliance with any one of the powers and destroy the rest, and also why he is purposefully letting the Terran Empire be conquered in the future. Spock tells the Romulan that the fall of the Terran Empire will cause the fall of the Romulan Star Empire, the Klingon Empire and the Cardassian Union. Doctor Carol Marcus has been working on the secret project Memory Omega with her son and a few other scientists ever since Spock ordered the project nine years prior. Memory Omega, a huge network spread throughout the quadrant, is intended to store the sum of all Terran and Vulcan knowledge. Spock orders her to speed up the progress because he is running out of time; he predicts the Klingon-Cardassian alliance will destroy Starfleet in fewer than two years. When the war with the Alliance ends, Spock intends for Memory Omega to be the base of the people's new civilization. Carol thanks Spock for killing Kirk, because Kirk would have killed both Carol and their son David. Two days before Spock issues the results of the Khitomer Conference to the Legislature, he has a private meeting with Captain Saavik. He orders her to resign from Starfleet before his address and return to Vulcan. Saavik agrees because she understands that this is a part of his great experiment, which is ending soon. She says she will continue to serve him on Vulcan, but has something to take care of first on Earth. Two days later, Valeris is waiting in the Forum Hall for Spock to deliver his announcement. Right before she detonates her armor, she discovers the detonator is gone, and Saavik stabs her to death. Spock and his allies exposed General Quiniven and the other conspirators two months ago. In the proclamation, Spock renounces war and tyranny, abolishes the planetary governors, replaces them with elected presidents, and sends a draft charter to Legislature for review and ratification. Finally, he dissolves the Empire and replaces it with the Terran Republic. The head of the Republic is the Consul, which Spock will be for four years, and after he steps down he can be reelected or Legislature can elect someone else. Spock exits amid the crowd's shock and anger. He returns to his quarters, where, despite Marlena's protests, he vaporizes the Tantalus field. Consul Spock and Marlena wait alone in the Common Forum for their killers to arrive. After the establishment of the Republic two years prior, it was quickly attacked by the Klingons and Cardassians. A year ago, Spock ordered unilateral disarmament of Starfleet and the people had no one to defend them when the Alliance invaded. The Alliance troops have just entered the Forum building. Gorkon and Legate Renar of the Cardassian Union break through to the Hall, and order Spock to surrender. Spock refuses, and tells the two leaders that that ending his Republic is the beginning of the end of their Empires before they assassinate him and Marlena. A week after Spock's assassination, the Alliance is reassigning Vulcans throughout their territories. Saavik, who had assumed an alias when she resigned two years ago, is assigned to be a domestic servant. Thousands of the reassigned Vulcans are sleeper agents, in a network that was built up over many years. They will hide in the halls and households of their enemies, and slowly destroy the Alliance and the Romulan Star Empire. She knows that their fall is inevitable now.